Can Antidepressants Treat Binge Eating Disorder?

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When you
have binge eating disorder, you often eat large amounts of food and have
trouble stopping. You don’t eat because you’re hungry, but because you feel
empty or sad inside.

Researchers
are increasingly learning that binge eating disorder, like other eating
disorders, is a mental health condition. People who binge often have anxiety,
depression, or other mental health issues.

Binge eating
disorder often responds to antidepressant medicines because of its roots in
mental health. Here’s a look at the link between depression and binge eating,
and how medicines used to treat depression might also help binge eaters.

What’s the Link Between Depression and Binge
Eating Disorder?

Binge eating
disorder and depression share a strong connection. Up to half of people who
binge are either currently depressed or were depressed in the past. Anxiety and
stress are also linked to binge eating.

How Can Antidepressants Help with Binge
Eating Disorder?

Antidepressants
may help reduce binge-eating episodes in one of a few ways. Lower-than-normal levels
of chemical messengers in the brain, such as serotonin, dopamine, and
norepinephrine may affect appetite, mood, and impulse control. This can
contribute to binge eating. Antidepressants increase levels of these brain chemicals,
which may help control binge eating.

A side
effect of some antidepressants is a decrease in appetite. Research has also shown
that antidepressants may help people with bulimia binge less often. Binge
eating disorder is similar to bulimia, except that people with bulimia purge
the food afterward by vomiting.

People with
binge eating disorder often have other conditions, like depression, panic
disorder, or generalized anxiety disorder. Antidepressants can be used to treat
these conditions.

Types of Antidepressants Used to Treat Binge
Eating Disorder

Selective
serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), a class of antidepressants, are
sometimes used to treat binge eating disorder. SSRIs increase the amount of a
chemical messenger called serotonin in the brain. Serotonin helps boost mood.

SSRIs used
for binge eating include:

fluoxetine (Prozac)

paroxetine (Paxil)

sertraline (Zoloft)

Other types
of antidepressants, including tricyclic antidepressants and serotonin and
norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), have been studied for treating
bulimia. In bulimia, these drugs help with both bingeing and purging. It is not
yet clear if they help people with binge eating disorder.

How Effective Are Antidepressants at
Treating Binge Eating Disorder?

People who’ve
taken antidepressants for binge eating disorder have reported that they feel
less of an urge to binge while on the medication. A review of studies found that people who took antidepressants
were more likely to stay in binge eating remission than those who didn’t take
the medicine. Antidepressants also relieved depression in people with binge
eating disorder.

Not enough
studies have been done to prove that these drugs work long term for binge
eating, though. Existing studies have only lasted for a few weeks or months, so
researchers have not been able to see whether people started to binge again
after the studies ended.

The authors
of the review didn’t recommend using antidepressants alone as a first treatment
for binge eating disorder. They concluded that more research is needed to find
out exactly how antidepressants can help with binge eating and how these drugs
should be used.

What Are the Side Effects of
Antidepressants?

Just like
any other medicine, antidepressants can cause side effects. One potential side
effect, appetite loss, can actually be helpful for those who binge eat. But
sometimes antidepressants can have the opposite effect, increasing appetite and
leading to weight gain, which can make them counterproductive for people with
binge eating disorder.

Other side
effects of antidepressants include:

dizziness

dry mouth

fatigue

headache

nausea or vomiting

nervousness

reduced sexual desire

trouble sleeping

Ask Your Doctor About Antidepressants

You have a
few different options for treating binge eating disorder. Your doctor might
start you on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which helps you overcome the
negative thoughts that cause you to binge eat. Or, you could try the medicine
lisdexamfetamine dimesylate (Vyvanse), the only drug that’s approved by the FDA
to treat binge eating.

If these
treatments don’t work for you, antidepressants may be another option. Discuss
with your doctor whether depression might be a factor in your binge eating.
Also talk about the possible benefits and side effects of antidepressants to
decide whether they’re right for you.